Notable Grinnellians

Town and College

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 19, 2025

1. Notable Grinnellians Marker

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2. Marker detail: Early Radial Engine Airplane

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Excerpt:  He was a handyman, tinkerer, and bicycle repairman who designed and built his own flying machine. In 1911, with the

3. Marker detail: James Norman Hall

help of Charles Hink, Robinson constructed a 60-horsepower radial motor for his monoplane. His innovations for the radial motor were revolutionary.
Robinson perished while flying his biplane, attempting to set an altitude record on March 11, 1916. His aircraft was witnessed climbing to altitude, before drifting down like a falling leaf, and gliding to a landing, which was controlled enough to leave skid marks, but rough enough to rupture the fuel tank and ignite the aircraft. Hypoxia was suspected among other reasons for the crash, but the fire made it impossible to verify the exact cause.
On June 18, 1988, the Grinnell Regional Airport was dedicated and named Billy Robinson Field.

Excerpt:  During World War I, Hall uniquely served in the armed forces of three Allied nations—Great Britain as an infantryman, and later France and the United States as an aviator. His wartime honors include the Croix de Guerre, the Médaille Militaire, the Légion d'Honneur, and the Distinguished Service Cross. After the war,

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 19, 2025

4. Notable Grinnellians Marker

Looking southeast through Central Park.

he settled in Tahiti, where he and Nordhoff wrote a number of successful adventure novels, many of which were adapted into films.
Hall was vacationing in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1914, when World War I broke out. Posing as a Canadian, he enlisted in the British Army and served in the Royal Fusiliers as a machine gunner during the Battle of Loos. After his true nationality was discovered, he was discharged and returned to the United States. Hall returned to Europe in 1916 on assignment with The Atlantic Monthly. He was tasked with writing a series of stories about American volunteers in the Lafayette Escadrille, but after spending time with the group, Hall became inspired to enlist in the Aéronautique Militaire, the French air service at the time. By then, a growing number of American pilots — including Hall — were serving in various French squadrons as part of the Lafayette Flying Corps, a larger effort that went beyond the Escadrille. He trained at the Avord and Pau aviation schools and was assigned to Escadrille N.124 — the famed Lafayette Escadrille — in June 1917. After being wounded in combat, he recovered and rejoined

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the unit later that year. During his time in French aviation, Hall was awarded the Croix de Guerre with five palms and the Médaille Militaire. In early 1918, after the United States entered the war, the Lafayette Escadrille was incorporated into the American 103rd Aero Squadron, and Hall was commissioned as a captain in the Army Air Service. Hall flew several combat missions over the Western Front with the 103rd Aero Squadron and later the 94th Aero Squadron, one of the first American pursuit units. During a brief period in early 1918, he served as acting commander of the 94th, where he flew alongside future ace Eddie Rickenbacker.
On May 7, 1918, during a dogfight over German lines, Hall's Nieuport lost fabric on its upper wing and was hit by antiaircraft fire, forcing him to crash-land in enemy territory. After being shot down, Hall spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war in Germany. During captivity, he kept a secret diary and continued writing, an experience that later influenced both his memoir High Adventure and his fiction. Following his release, he received both the French Légion d'Honneur and the American Distinguished Service Cross.